Asahi - The disaster and animals (1 & 2)

PROMETHEUS TRAP/ The disaster and animals (2): Daughter tells father, 'You are stupid'

April 24, 2013

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/life_and_death/AJ201304240007

By MISUZU TSUKUE/ Staff Writer

Editor's note: This is the second part of a new series that has run in the past under the title of The Prometheus Trap. This series deals with how pets and livestock fared in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The series will appear on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

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In the morning on March 12, 2011, a day after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc, a police officer in protective gear was telling people from his patrol car, “Please evacuate immediately.”

At that time, the officer never referred to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Veterinarian Seido Watanabe of Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, had spent the previous night with his wife and daughters in their car as the huge tsunami flowed in a river upward and reached the area in front of their house, which is situated on a hill.

At night on March 11, the government issued a declaration that said an emergency situation had occurred in a nuclear power plant. However, news of the declaration did not reach Watanabe.

“Despite that the huge tsunami has receded, why do we have to evacuate now?” he wondered.

Thinking that he would soon be allowed to return to his home, he planned to evacuate without bringing even a change of underwear with him.

Then, his second daughter, Reina, a third-year junior high school student, said, “Let’s bring Ponyo with us.” She wanted to take the family's pregnant pet dog with them. The dog was expected to give birth to her first puppies the next day through a Caesarean operation.

But Watanabe told her immediately, “We will not bring the dog with us.”

At that time, his animal hospital near their home had 17 dogs and cats. He was not able to put all of them in his car. As a veterinarian, it was impossible to bring only his pet dogs with him, while leaving all the other dogs and cats in the hospital.

“You are stupid, stupid. You should die,” Reina told him crying. Then, she refused to speak to her father.

The family evacuated to Kawauchi village, where he learned for the first time that an accident had occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. After that, the family continued to move around to various evacuation locations. His hopes of being able to return home soon were shattered.

When Watanabe temporarily returned to his house on March 19 with a firm resolve, five of the dogs and cats in his hospital had already died. They had apparently been unable to survive a week due to old age or poor health.

One of the five was a Labrador retriever, from which he had removed its spleen the previous month. As the postoperative condition of the dog was good, it was difficult for him to convey news of its death to its owner.

However, he called owners of all of the five dogs and cats and told them about the death of their pets. One of the owners came to his animal hospital immediately after he left there, but failed to see his pet.

None of the five owners criticized Watanabe directly. However, one of them asked him, “Wasn't it possible to come back for the dogs and cats a little sooner?”

He apologized to the owner with his eyes full of tears.

The owners of the dogs and cats that have survived have evacuated to municipalities throughout the country. Only Watanabe could continue to care for their pets. He relocated them in several trips, and is now keeping them in a borrowed shed in Miharu, also in Fukushima Prefecture, where his wife’s parents' house is located.

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PROMETHEUS TRAP/ The disaster and animals (1): Veterinarian finds puppy amid Fukushima nuke crisis

April 22, 2013

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/life_and_death/AJ201304220001

By MISUZU TSUKUE/ Staff Writer

Editor's note: This is the first part of a new series that has run in the past under the title of The Prometheus Trap. This series deals with how pets and livestock fared in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The series will appear on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

* * *

There were many lives lost in the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and the evacuation that followed the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

But veterinarian Seido Watanabe saved one life that was within his power.

On March 19, 2011, Watanabe, 53, of Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, cried out loudly in joy on a hill where his house stands: “Woo-yay!”

At that time, he was holding a puppy that had just been born. Toward the central area of the town, he raised the tiny animal and let out a shout with all his might.

“Tokyo Electric Power Co., look at this puppy. Even in a situation like this, an animal is alive. I will also rise up and reconstruct this town by all means,” Watanabe thought.

The town of Tomioka is host to the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant. In addition, his house is located only seven kilometers from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, which suffered the accident following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. Watanabe evacuated the next day, on March 12. He would not return to his home until March 19, a week later.

At the time of the evacuation, he did not take with him his own pet dogs or about 20 dogs and cats in his animal hospital, thinking that he would be able to soon return. However, the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant was not likely to be quickly resolved.

Though he feared that another explosion could occur at the plant, he risked returning to his home, thinking that unless he did so, all of the dogs and the cats would weaken and eventually die.

After driving into Tomioka, he passed through a local attraction--a road lined with 2,000 cherry trees. When he turned a corner, he could see his house and the animal hospital on the hill.

Before the disaster, his pets dogs—French bulldogs named Chester and Ponyo—often greeted him excitedly when he sounded the horn of his car about several hundred meters before pulling into his house.

On March 19, he hit the horn for longer than before while thinking that all of the dogs and cats had probably died.

On the day of the evacuation, he put out more food than usual. But he failed to prepare water due to the water system being cut off.

“It will be impossible for them to survive,” he thought.

After arriving at his house, however, he found white and black “lumps” moving in a corner of the garden. They were Chester and Ponyo, without a doubt.

He could not bring himself to believe that they were still alive. The two were barking fanatically. Though they looked weakened, they happily wagged their tails.

Ponyo was pregnant when Watanabe had evacuated. However, her belly had become flat, so he thought that she must have given birth to her puppies. When he looked for them in the garden, he found only one. A black puppy was lying on a glove in a space between the doghouse and a wall of the animal hospital. He did not know where Ponyo had found the glove.

The puppy’s eyes were closed. It was apparent that it was unable to take breast milk from Ponyo because its body was cold and dried up. If Watanabe had returned to the house a day later, the puppy would have undoubtedly died.

When Ponyo was pregnant, Watanabe did an ultrasonography check of her body. At that time, he confirmed the presence of two puppies. He looked for the other puppy in the garden but could not find it, and thought that it could have been eaten by crows.

But he had saved one life.